TULSA, OK – Less than 24 hours after a loss at Missouri eliminated the Oilers from playoff contention, Tulsa was once again outlasted by the Mavericks in a 6-5 overtime loss in the regular season finale at the BOK Center.  The Oilers fell to the Mavericks for the eighth time in nine meetings this season.

The two sides traded goals in the first period with Michel Beausoleil scoring for the Oilers and Brandon Smith finding the net for the Mavericks.  Beausoleil reached the 20-goal plateau for the third straight season and the eighth time in his career.

Brad Good scored his professional goal to give Missouri a 2-1 lead early the second period and Ryan Jardine followed up 51 seconds later to push the visitors advantage to two goals.  Oilers rookie Dylan Clarke brought his team back, first shoveling home a rebound past Mavs goalie B.J. O’Brien at 7:04 and then blasting a one-timer into a gaping net at 18:32.  The pair of goals gave Clarke 29 on the season, and pushed him into a tie with Mike Ullrich for the team lead.

With the Oilers trailing 4-3 in the third, Drew Fisher, fresh off his senior season at Bemidji State University, rifled a slap shot past O’Brien for the game-tying goal, his first as a professional.  Missouri re-gained the lead when Dale Mahovsky tipped in a pass from Sebastien Thinel but the Oilers found the answer less than two minutes later.  Ryan Cramer picked up a nifty drop pass from Marty Standish and beat O’Brien over the glove to tie the game for the fourth time.

The Mavericks started the overtime period with a powerplay and the CHL’s top unit wasted little time in making the most of the opportunity.  Thinel slipped a pass in front of the net to the waiting stick of Jardine who buried his second goal of the game just 32 seconds into the extra frame.

The loss dropped the Oilers to 0-7 in overtime games.  Tulsa finished the 2011-12 campaign with 66 points and a record of 29-29-7.  Clarke and Ullrich led the way for Tulsa throughout the season, both finished with 64 points while netminder Ian Keserich ended up with 21 wins, one shy of his career-high set last season.

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 25th, 2012 at 10:38 pm and is filed under CHL News, News, Oilers News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.